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| Meta's $17 Billion Settlement Puts Kids' Online Safety Center Stage |
| Meta agreed to pay 17 billion dollars and add new child-safety features to Facebook and Instagram to settle claims by 47 states that it designed its platforms to hook young users. Announced August 26, the settlement ended a landmark trial in Oakland and keeps student mental health and phone use on administrators' minds as the year begins. |
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| Education Department Tells Schools to Stop Racial Balancing in Discipline |
| In an August 18 Dear Colleague letter, the week's most-read K-12 story, the Office for Civil Rights told schools to stop weighing race when addressing discipline disparities. Districts are reworking discipline policies to match the new interpretation of Title VI. |
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| New Guidance: Mental-Health Screenings Need Parental Consent |
| The Department told schools that mental-health screenings and student surveys generally require parental consent under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, adding a compliance step as districts expand social-emotional and wellness programs. |
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| Washington Comes to Ed Tech's Defense |
| In a separate August 20 letter, the Department defended classroom technology, drawing a line between purposeful ed tech and recreational screen time. Decisions belong at the state and local level, it said, and the real question is whether a tool improves learning. |
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| When Does AI Tutoring Actually Work? Keep a Human in the Loop |
| New research raises a caution for districts weighing AI tutoring: the tools work best when a person stays involved. A Stanford brief frames AI tutoring as a spectrum, and a Brown University paper found human support meaningfully raises engagement, especially for students least likely to persist alone. |
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| A Special-Education Access Case Heads to the Supreme Court |
| A closely watched special-education dispute was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court this week. The outcome could shape how far schools must go to ensure students with disabilities have meaningful access, with direct consequences for districts and families nationwide. |
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| Judge Blocks Overhaul of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program |
| A federal judge on August 19 halted the move to refocus the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program on abstinence and cut grants that did not fit, ruling the changes skipped required rulemaking steps. The program's future remains unsettled. |
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| Ten Commandments Classroom Laws Reach the Supreme Court |
| Two challenges to state laws requiring public-school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments were appealed to the Supreme Court on August 17, setting up a potential landmark ruling on religion in public schools. |
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| Head Start Braces for a Standards Rollback |
| A 50-state analysis from Arizona State's Children's Equity Project warned that swapping federal Head Start quality standards for state rules would leave most toddlers with worse adult-to-child ratios and just two states meeting current teacher qualifications. |
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| E-rate's Future in Question as the FCC Weighs Changes |
| The FCC's E-rate program, which sent about 10.5 billion dollars to schools and libraries for internet between 2021 and 2025, is under review, with a proposed rule open for comment that could reshape or end the fifth-largest source of federal school funding. |
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